The Very Real Dangers of Mistrust and Suspicion

(1)Someone once said that one of the problems with politicians in Northern Ireland is that no one says what they mean.

This has some very real dangers in that, if the various parties/politicians really are willing to sit down and talk/negotiate, their public statements and their "official" stated positions may actually prevent all the various parties from reaching the negotiating stage because of the fear,mistrust and suspicion generated by these "official" public "fronts".


(2)ALL of the various parties must find better ways of signaling to the people of N.Ireland that they are indeed serious about reaching a political settlement that has the support of a majority in each of the two main communities in N.Ireland.


(3)There is a problem in trying to move away from the old confrontational style of politics in that the parties presently seem to be playing a very dangerous game of bluff to see who will give ground first.

The party or individual who does start advocating less extreme policies will lose ground and will be seen to have lost ground if a move towards a policy of seeking agreement and consent is not matched by a similar shift by individuals, politicians and parties on the "other side" , if the ground offered is "eaten up" by those on the other side for no return.


(4)It seems at present that it will be very difficult for the parties to break out of this dead-lock and strangle-hold that the old style of politics and the old fears and suspicions have imposed on the situation WITHOUT HELP FROM SOME THIRD AGENCY.

Furthermore, it will almost be impossible to get those at one extreme to shift their position without some indication that those at the other extreme are prepared to shift theirs.


(5)For the above reason it is time that ,for example, the Catholic clergy and churchmen from the main Protestant churches got together again with two combined aims in mind:-
a)to convince the paramilitaries on both sides to accept the outcome of negotiations, whatever this outcome might be, if it has the support of BOTH a majority of Nationalists AND a majority of Unionists;
b)to convince all the parties to the talks to accept beforehand that any political settlement likewise must have the support of BOTH a majority of Nationalists AND a majority of Unionists.


(6)It will be necessary to try to achieve both aims simultaneously as ,for example,the Unionist politicians will not agree to proper talks if it seems that the IRA will reject the outcome if it falls short of a United Ireland and the IRA will not stop its campaign if it seems that Unionist politicians will not engage in proper talks to reach a widely accepted agreement and will in fact accept nothing that recognizes the Nationalist side of the political equation in N.Ireland.


(7)Finally:-
a)Sinn Fein,the IRA ,Nationalist politicians generally and the Irish Government need to be aware that , whether or not the British Government and the Unionist politicians are guilty of using delaying tactics to avoid proper talks , very many people in the protestant community remain deeply suspicious of their intentions and that they need to do something more to allay these suspicions and to show that they are genuine about reaching an agreement that recognizes both traditions;
b)Loyalist paramilitaries,Unionist politicians generally and the British government need to be aware that, whether or not the IRA is dodging around the question of stopping violence ,very many people in the catholic community remain deeply suspicious of their intentions and that they also will need to do more to allay these suspicions and to show that they also are genuine about reaching an agreement that recognizes both traditions .

Back to "Cothrom Home Page"
Back to "Other Cothrom Documents"

Note: All pf these Cothrom pages that relate to Northern Ireland were originally created at the end of the '90's/early 00's.